So, in the time I've been a member of this forum I have never seen a debate about this, though I feel it could have be rehashed a thousand times.
For practice and regular meets, what are your suit preferences?
For practice: I usually do a brief with a drag suit. If I'm out of shape or my quads are hurting, I'll use a jammer for the extra compression.
For regular meets: I usually do whatever the team suit is, which has varied over the years. I prefer the brief because of more flexibility.
In big competitions*:, I would use a leg skin and if I had the need to buy one today, I'd probably go with a tech jammer.
*Regionals, States, Nationals, etc
For practice I use primarily speedo endurance products. Regular meets I go for the speedo xtra-life or aqua blade.
I used to get a lot of crap for wearing a brief, but now I feel like they're making a comeback. I like to think I converted some people on my high school team. Actually, the only person who really gives me crap anymore are my friends who don't swim and my girlfriend (who does swim). She says the ugliest part of a guy is the upper outside thigh the brief doesn't cover.
I'm the only one that wears a square leg suit for practice on my (USA Swimming) team. My experience is they get popular with guys after college. On my team the younger kids wear jammers and the older kids wear briefs. The cutoff seems to be high school. Once they get to high school jammers aren't "cool" to use for practice anymore, I guess :)
Our masters practice comes right on the heels of the kids practice, so there's usually a bunch of mothers sitting around, watching their offspring like fish hawks.
I wore jammers for most of the past 15 years to avoid the likely talk by the maternal condemnation squad if confronted by a man of a certain age wearing a brief. "Look at that portly pedo!" I am certain they would cackle in unison.
But jammers are restricting, especially on flip turns, and the switch to polyester jammers only made this worse.
So I switched to square legs recently and must say I really like them. The mothers may still be thinking portly pedo, but in my mind, I am envisioning my inner Burt Lancaster:
From Here To Eternity - Kiss scene on the beach - YouTube
Who knows? Maybe the mothers are thinking the same thing--and the severity on their scowling faces only reflect an inner turmoil of forbidden desire?
I'm the only one that wears a square leg suit for practice on my (USA Swimming) team. My experience is they get popular with guys after college. On my team the younger kids wear jammers and the older kids wear briefs. The cutoff seems to be high school. Once they get to high school jammers aren't "cool" to use for practice anymore, I guess :)
Our masters practice comes right on the heels of the kids practice, so there's usually a bunch of mothers sitting around, watching their offspring like fish hawks.
I wore jammers for most of the past 15 years to avoid the likely talk by the maternal condemnation squad if confronted by a man of a certain age wearing a brief. "Look at that portly pedo!" I am certain they would cackle in unison.
But jammers are restricting, especially on flip turns, and the switch to polyester jammers only made this worse.
So I switched to square legs recently and must say I really like them. The mothers may still be thinking portly pedo, but in my mind, I am envisioning my inner Burt Lancaster:
From Here To Eternity - Kiss scene on the beach - YouTube
Who knows? Maybe the mothers are thinking the same thing--and the severity on their scowling faces only reflect an inner turmoil of forbidden desire?
